Independent Musician Road Maps to the Music Industry
By Rick Hartwig

There’s an old expression, its not what you know, but who you know. It doesn’t really matter what line of work you’re in, the principle holds true. The music industry is no exception, but unless you’re last name is Matola, Geffen, or Rubin, your probably going to need some help in that department.

The good news is there is help available in the form of a few music guides that can put you in touch with the right people. These guides provide invaluable information that no independent musician, band, or music pro should be without.

“It used to take so much of our time trying to find out who we needed to talk to. It didn’t matter if we were trying to book a show, find a producer, or line up some publicity – we were always on the phone” said Rich Boot, drummer for the band Mama Llama. “Then one day our manager ordered a copy of the Music Phone Book and that all changed. Instead of spending all that time trying to figure out who to talk to, we started building relationships with them.”

But one of the most surprising things about music industry guides is how few musicians know they even exist. “We didn’t know there was a book available that would tell us the names and numbers of the people we wanted to work with” said guitarist George Wiswald “It wasn’t until we were playing for the first time with one of the biggest bands in the area and I asked their manager why they were so successful on the road. He pulled out a copy of this magazine and it absolutely blew my mind. It gave you all the info you needed, the names & direct phone numbers for all the people you need to talk to.”

“A week after we got our own copy, we had lined up six new places to play and arranged two interviews with local papers to help promote the shows. I was amazed at how much easier things were from that point on.”

But then again things aren’t always what they seem. Some of the music guides have plenty of listings, but their accuracy and completeness leave something to be desired.

“The A&R directory limits its content to record labels exclusively. While the directory is fairly complete, its only helpful if you’re shopping for a label. It’s not going to help you in terms of booking, publicity, support, or promotion” said band manager Josh Mathews. “I used to spend a couple hundred dollars each year buying magazines that covered different categories. Now I always brought in more money from using these guides than I spent buying them, but it was still a pretty large expense.” “Plus the quality of some of the music guides I bought were spotty at best. Some of them listed clubs and business that had been closed for years, or the person they listed had left the company eons ago.”

“That’s one of the reasons I started the Music Phone Book” said publisher David Codr. “I worked as a concert promoter, band manager, producer, and club booking agent in California in the ‘90’s. That was before the internet so finding the right person was almost impossible. But still, those music guides were the only game in town despite the fact none of them were comprehensive and the accuracy wasn’t there. So I thought ‘hey, I work in the business, I have the experience to know how to make a better music guide, even if I didn’t have the experience of putting a magazine together.’ “

So Codr went to work creating his own version of a complete music guide, taking the contacts from his personal rolodex as a base and building from there. Flipping through the most recent edition of his guide, the Music Phone Book, its obvious his work in the business made a significant difference.

Instead of only one or two categories, the Music Phone Book includes 29. But that’s not all. The Music Phone Book is the only music guide that covers the whole country with three different editions; West Coast, Midwest, and Eastern. “Most independent musicians aren’t touring the whole country, so why buy a guide that covers markets you don’t work in? We give musicians and music pros more in-depth listings than any other magazine out there, and we do it without making it an ad rag or charging them an arm and a leg.”

The Music Phone Book’s $35.00 cover price is surprising when you consider it has far more contacts than guides that cost upwards of $50 or $100.

Best of all, its free to get listed in the Music Phone Book if you’re a business. Artist listings are reserved for subscribers due to the thousands of artist listing requests they receive each year. But paying $35 to have your band at the fingertips of nearly 200,000 music industry readers has its advantages.